This invention relates to article organizer display units for exhibiting consumer items at points of purchase and is arranged to provide a stack of at least two shelves together with means for supporting such shelves in level or in gravity feed orientation as may be desired.

U. S. patent 4,467,927 issued August 28, 1984 discloses and claims a molded tray for display stands and includes one form of socket at each corner which is retained within the confines of the periphery of the shelves.

U. S. patent 4,550,838 issued November 5, 1985 discloses a modular display rack in which apertures are formed in the side walls of the rack shelves for receiving support rods which are disposed in angular relation to an imaginary vertical plane.

U. S. patent 4,690,287 issued September 1, 1987 and owned by the assignee of this invention discloses a display device in which one shelf is disposed above another and supported by means of U-shaped brackets which are interrelated with the two vertically spaced units so as to hold such units in spaced relation.

U. S. patent 4,763,796 issued August 16, 1988 discloses a display arrangement wherein sockets of square or rectangular configuration are arranged to cooperate with vertically disposed posts which are of square or of rectangular configuration.

According to this invention in one form, an article organizer display unit is provided in accordance with independent claim 1. In a second form, a socket is provided as defined in independent claim 4.

In the drawings, FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an article organizer display unit in which one of the shelves is of the gravity feed type while other shelves are level and in which one of the shelves is provided with dividers forming channels of different widths in which items are disposed in rows; FIG. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary perspective view of a portion of a corner of a shelf together with an associated socket and a fragment of its cooperating tubular post; FIG. 3 is a cross sectional view taken along an equivalent line to the line 4-4 in FIG. 2 of a socket attached to a gravity feed shelf 16; and FIG. 4 is an enlarged perspective view of a socket and of one form of mounting means whereby a socket is secured to a peripheral part of a shelf.

With reference to FIG. 1, the article organizer display unit of that figure includes a base shelf 1 to the front corners of which tubular posts 2 and 3 are mounted. These posts are of equal height and are arranged to cooperate at their upper ends with a pair of sockets 3 and 4 which are formed according to a feature of this invention. Corner posts 5 and 6 are of greater height than corner posts 2 and 3 to provide gravity feed and cooperate at their upper ends with sockets 7 and 8 which are formed according to a feature of this invention. Corner posts 2, 3, 5 and 6 all are mounted at their lower ends in appropriate recesses formed in base 1. Base 1 includes an article support surface generally indicated at 9 which includes no dividers and which is level.

Sockets 3, 4, 7 and 8 are secured to the outer periphery of the shelf generally designated by the numeral 10. Shelf 10 includes dividers 11-15 which are spaced by varying amounts from each other and from the shelf side edges such as 16 and 17. Thus shelf 10 is arranged to accommodate displayed articles of different sizes and which may be of different characteristics if desired.

Shelves 18, 19, 20 and 21 are level and are provided with dividers which are equally spaced as is obvious. Since the four upper shelves in FIG. 1 are level, it follows that the front posts 22 are longer than the rear posts 22 and that posts 23, 24 and 25 are of equal length. Obviously the upper end of posts 22 cooperate with corner sockets 26 while the lower ends of tubular posts 23 cooperate with sockets 26. Similarly all of the posts 22, 23, 24 and 25 cooperate with their associated corner sockets as is obvious.

While the corner sockets of FIG. 1 are shown as mounted close to the corners of the shelves, these sockets may be spaced somewhat from the corners if desired. Such spacing is indicated in FIG. 2. In FIG. 2, socket 26 is shown secured to the periphery of shelf 18 and post 22 is shown arranged with its upper end associated with the socket 26 from underneath.

Socket 26 includes a base plate 38 and a cradle 39 which together constitute a mounting bracket for a socket such as 26. Socket 26 also includes a tubular cavity 40 having a fixed projection secured to the inner surface thereof and designated by the numeral 41. This projection preferably is in the form of an inner flange which extends about the entire inner surface of the tubular cavity 40 and which is arranged for engagement by the upper end of the tubular post 22.

Disposed within the tubular cavity 40 is a cylindrical hub structure 42 which is integrally secured to the inner edges of radial plates 43, 44, 45 and 48.

The cradle structure 39 includes a pair of support arms 46 and 47 which are secured in angular relation to each other and arranged with their outer ends secured to the ends of base plate 38 as is obvious from FIG. 2. The outer connected ends of arms 46 and 47 constitute integral parts of the tubular cavity 40.

For the purpose of securing the sockets to the side edge of a shelf, the pronged structure shown in FIG. 4 may be used. In this structure, the prongs 50 and 51 may be integrally formed with the base plate 38 and such prongs may be inserted into suitable apertures (not shown) which are formed in the side wall W of a shelf such as 18. Such apertures may obviously be formed in any suitable manner. Instead of the two prongs 50 and 51, either one or three prongs could be used if desired.

Other structure might be used for mounting the sockets. For example, an application of glue could be applied to base plate 38 and could thus be effective to hold the base plate in secure contact with the side wall W of the shelf such as 18.

If desired, threaded apertures (not shown) could be formed in base plate 38 and suitable mechanical screws or fasteners could be inserted through the wall W and into the apertures formed in base plate 38.

Still another arrangement could utilize a base plate 38 which includes overturned upper and lower edge portions which could envelope the upper and lower edges of a shelf wall such as W.

Also the socket could be formed as an integral part of the shelf.

According to this invention, the special separate socket including the mounting bracket and tubular cavity provides versatility and easy assembly of a display unit as is indicated in FIG. 1, an easily assembled structure may be provided for both level and gravity feed shelves which may have a variety of divider spacings. A structure along the general lines of FIG. 1 could provide a display of paint wherein one or more shelves could display small and medium size paint cans whereas other shelves could display larger can sizes. Thus, a manufacturer of paint could provide a ready indication of the various sizes of containers and types of paints available to customers and could arrange for the assembly of an organizer unit specially adapted for such use.